Trans broadcaster India Willoughby compares chaotic Question Time debate to a ‘hanging’
India Willoughby and Ella Whelan appeared on BBC’s Question Time on Thursday 2 February. (Question Time/BBC)
Trans broadcaster India Willoughby has commented on her appearance on BBC’s Question Time, calling its descent into a shouting match over trans conversation points “a lynch mob”.
The debate show, broadcast from the University of Strathclyde, in Glasgow, on Thursday (2 February) covered issues including Scotland’s recently blocked Gender Reform Bill, and the case of Isla Bryson, a trans rapist who was recently placed in a male prison.
Willoughby was joined on the show by Scottish Conservative Party MP John Lamont, Labour MP Ian Murray, SNP MSP Jenny Gilruth, and journalist Ella Whelan, where they discussed issues facing the trans community, a debate which Willoughby described as “toxic”.
Willoughby told the audience: “This has been a debate now that has raged for a minimum of three, four years.
“It’s been incredibly toxic and it’s been awful as a trans person… to be at home and see people who aren’t actually trans discuss your life and paint you, as a whole, as dangerous to society and unwanted, it’s just horrible.”
She added after Question Time aired that the debate “felt like a hanging”, and that she had done her best to represent the trans community.
“Lynch mob. Felt like I was at a hanging! Mine!” Willoughby wrote on Twitter.
“Trans people are amazing (I know – biased) and it was disappointing to feel that mood in the air. 1970s audience bar a few exceptions! Did my best.”
The debate also saw Willoughby and Whelan butt heads over the case of Isla Bryson, with the journalist claiming it is “remarkable” that politicians have “given up on the belief in reality that sex is real and that it’s irrefutable.”
Whelan continued by saying she believes some trans women are “pretending to be something they are not.”
After a series of comments between the two, Willoughby explained: “I know you are desperate to drag this into the gutter, but I’m not gonna go there.”
Half-way through the programme, host Fiona Bruce was forced to intervene and called for a “civilised and polite conversation”.
The case of Isla Bryson came to a head on 26 January, when Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon said Bryson, who was found guilty of raping two women before transitioning, would be held in an all-male prison.
Announcing the decision, Sturgeon said: “Given the public and parliamentary concern, I don’t see how it’s possible to have a rapist within a female prison.
“In this case, I can confirm to parliament that this prisoner will not be incarcerated at Cornton Vale women’s prison.
“And I hope that provides assurance to the public, not least to the victims in this particular case.”
The Question Time debate was also hit with anti-trans comments from the audience regarding Bryson, with one person telling Willoughby, “You can live your life how you like and I wish you no harm but you can’t biologically change sex.”
MP Lamont also claimed that the UK Government “did not feel the necessary safeguards” were in place to prevent trans women being in female prisons.
But Willoughby said: “There are bad apples in all walks of life. There are bad Protestants, there are bad Catholics, there are bad lesbians, there are bad gays. And yes, there are bad trans people.
“And all of those people, if they do something criminal and are found guilty, they deserve to go to jail and to be punished.
“A jail that is suitable for them and where everybody else is safe.”
Social media users came to Willoughby’s defence, with one Twitter user saying they were “shocked and embarrassed” by the “hostility” shown towards the trans community on the programme.
Another wrote: “As the mother of a trans daughter, it was very hard to watch and listen at times… can’t they understand that most trans [people] have a quiet life. They are not monsters.”
